BALTIMORE — So far in this bizarro baseball season, there’s been a four-month shutdown due to a pandemic and labor dispute, followed by countless rule changes and a constantly changing schedule.
But one thing has remained the same: The Yankees can’t seem to lose to the Orioles.
After the Yankees blew a five-run lead and saw the Orioles hit a go-ahead homer in the bottom of the eighth, Aaron Judge delivered a blast of his own to save the Yankees in an 8-6 win.
It was the Yankees’ 18th straight victory over the Orioles — and 17th in a row at Camden Yards.
“Just get the job done,’’ Judge said of his approach during the at-bat.
Asked if he ever felt his team is out of a game, Aaron Boone said, “Absolutely not. Guys can hurt you up and down. That was the case tonight.”
No one more so than Judge, who turned on a 3-1 fastball from Cole Sulser to give the Yankees the lead again.
But it didn’t come easily.
Luke Voit’s grand slam helped give the Yankees a 5-0 lead in the first, but J.A. Happ, who struggled with home runs a year ago, gave up a pair of two-run homers in his first outing of the season Thursday.
The first was to Hanser Alberto in the first and Rio Ruiz hit another in the second.
The Yankees had a chance to add to their lead in the eighth when Giancarlo Stanton continued his torrid start with a one-out walk and Aaron Hicks ripped a double. But Voit whiffed and Gary Sanchez, still searching for his first hit of the season, did the same to end the threat.
Still, after a shutout inning from Adam Ottavino in the fifth with storm clouds rolling in and two scoreless frames from Jonathan Loaisiga, the Yankees were five outs away from another win when Pedro Severino took Loaisiga deep for a two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth.
The Yankees didn’t trail for long.
Gio Urshela started the top of the ninth with a walk and moved to second on DJ LeMahieu’s one-out single to right.
That’s when Judge, who hit his first homer of the year on Wednesday, came up to face the overmatched Sulser and crushed it.
Zack Britton came on to close it with a scoreless ninth for his second save of the year in a game that was delayed for 94 minutes by rain before the bottom of the sixth. Boone called the delay “not ideal” considering MLB’s protocols that aim to limit teams’ time at the park, but called the decision to continue the game “understandable.”
The Yankees have won three in a row — with two games that weren’t played against the Phillies over the weekend due to coronavirus concerns — as they head into Friday’s home opener versus the Red Sox.
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Despite the uncertainty, Judge said the opening trip was “great.
“We’re playing baseball,’’ Judge said. “We’re getting started. There’s a lot of things going on in the world, but to be back and to be able to play baseball is something special.”
Boone called the start to the season “2020-ish,” as it was filled with postponements, rain delays and other unforeseen obstacles, but he was pleased with how it turned out.
“It was definitely unique,’’ Boone said of the trip. “But 4-1 to start the season, you take that. It was not real great conditions. Guys had to make some adjustments.”
Including Happ, who was pitching on an eight-day layoff and likely would have gone longer in the game if the weather wasn’t about to turn.
The 37-year-old said he was “rushing a little bit, probably anxious after we got on the board [in the first].”
But he believes he’ll be able to fix the issues — and knows he can afford to make some mistakes thanks to his own lineup.
“We have a lot of confidence in our offense, for sure,” Happ said.